Fishfreak2009's 240 Gallon Build

[Fishfreak2009]

Did you do any bracing in the floor for this tank??

No, my whole house is a single story ranch on a 6" thick concrete slab.

 

[littlefoxx]

No, my whole house is a single story ranch on a 6" thick concrete slab.

Ah. Beautiful tank :)

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Ah. Beautiful tank :)

Thanks!

 

[RJT]

Where are you getting these amazing fish?

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Where are you getting these amazing fish?

All my fish come from various stores within 2 hrs of my house or from local reefers who can no longer keep them (the zebra moray, the vlamingii tang, the sohal tang, and the picasso trigger). Some of these fish even came from a couple different Petco stores.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Finally upgraded the lighting last night to 4x 165W Viparspectra LEDs. So I shot a quick video of the fish eating NLS and snapped a couple pics tonight. Last pic is the view from the window when you pull in the driveway lol.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Puffy XL, the 11" stars and stripes puffer finally made it out of quarantine and into the display.

Almost zero aggression from anyone (briefly from the vlamingii when he tried to sleep in the cave the vlamingii has claimed at night), and he now begs for food alongside OG Puffy (the yellow belly dogface puffer).

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Merry Christmas to me! Went and picked up this gorgeous 6" queen angel today from a friend who fully quarantined it for me using my quarantine protocol. Brought it back with him from his last trip to Florida (legally, he is a retailer with an account with a collector down there). She's already settling in nicely, and pretty much no aggression from the existing fish. Even dove into the feeding frenzy with the rest of the gang. This might be the last fish going in, it looks pretty perfect now stockwise.

Not the best pics since I'm in the middle of cleaning the tank (want it spotless for Christmas), but here she is! Absolutely gorgeous fish, probably the nicest looking queen I've seen in-person, though I may be biased. I really like the extra blue and green present in the body compared to most (which are mostly yellow).

I also tried adding a piece of branch rock with about 30 captain jerk palythoa on it, to see if the fish would leave it alone. Between the maculosus angel, the cream angel, and the stars and stripes puffer almost all the palys were gone in about 10 minutes...

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Two quick videos from today

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Someone got to join the 240 gallon much sooner than expected. He's barely 2" long and was swimming around with a 3.5" aurora goby hanging from his mouth. Thankfully got them separated and both seem ok so far.

 

[RJT]

You caught him in time. How dd you get them separated

 

[12humuhumu21]

Your tank is awesome!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

You caught him in time. How dd you get them separated

I added the net to catch the bigeye and he spit out the goby

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I really need to get updated pics of this system! We did end up losing the queen angel about 2 weeks after introduction. No idea what happened, just found it dead in the rockwork. No signs of bullying or aggression, no nipped or damaged fins. We did also lose the bigeye, found him deceased and mostly consumed after coming home from grocery shopping one morning, roughly 1 month after intro to the big tank. I suspect either the picasso trigger or the Hardwick's wrasse decided he was small enough and harmless enough to consume.

We have since picked up 2 new additions from a local reefer who tore down their system. They should be joining the tank shortly. Just need to build an acclimation box big enough for the tang. Both fish are about 5" long, so I expect no issues from the established fish for the soldierfish, but the tang definitely will cause some tension. I want to get some more weight on the tang as well before moving him over, he's not skinny, but definitely not fat like the tangs in here, and he'll need everything he's got to keep up with the other tangs, especially the sohal. He's about 1/2" larger than the sohal, so hoping that helps somewhat.

 

[littlefoxx]

Love the clown tang!

 

[0MNSH1ZLLC]

Clown tang and Sohal…let me know how it goes. Keep a mirror handy!

Love that queen angel!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Clown tang and Sohal…let me know how it goes. Keep a mirror handy!

Love that queen angel!

Unfortunately lost the queen angel shortly after she was introduced. No idea what happened, as no signs of disease or aggression were noted on her post-mortem or while watching her swim up until I found her deceased.

Definitely adding a couple mirrors for the clown tang once it goes in, will be using an XL acclimation box, and will probably move around some rockwork to help reset territories.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Tank was looking pretty rough when I snapped these pics, since I was mid-water change. Moved the clown tang, the blackbar soldierfish, and the juvenile red-breast Maori Wrasse (a replacement for the broomtail that unfortunately died a month and a half or so ago) into the big tank and added an eggcrate divider so the clown and sohal can hopefully get used to one another. I'll have to get pics of the clown tang and soldierfish tomorrow, along with the rest of the fish. They've all grown and are SO fat! I was trying to get pics for the wrasse lover's thread hence all the wrasse pics today :)

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Here are some pics from today

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Here are a few pics from today, under whites and blues. Still have the tank divided while the sohal and clown hopefully get used to one another. On the hunt for a few other larger tangs I can quarantine and add at once to hopefully help disperse aggression when I try reintroducing them in another month or 2. Going to do it while wifey is home with the baby so she can add a divider back in if needed.